Monthly Archive for May, 2015

: May, 2015

In the 1950s, the late, and now infamous, Senator Joseph McCarthy used the fear of communism to gain national recognition by making reckless charges against a wide array of public figures, the film industry, a war hero, and the President of the United States. In the end, his reckless disregard for facts, evidence, common decency, […] …

Pushed hard by the oil and gas industry, but fiercely opposed by municipalities and environmental groups, the bill specifically prohibits cities or towns from banning operations such as drilling, fracking, water disposal, recovery operations or pipeline infrastructure. …

The end of the smart meter surcharge, which is largely passed onto customers by the retail electricity companies, will eventually mean fewer charges for many homeowners and renters. The exact surcharges passed onto to customers vary based on the contracts with their electricity providers. …

Cheniere Energy is ready to start construction on an expansion of its Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas export terminal, but it can’t start work until federal regulators dismiss an environmental group’s request to intervene. …

Dynegy, which denies the claims, is accused of using a power auction by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator — a regional transmission organization in the Midwest — to push prices up for parts of Illinois from $16.75 per megawatt-day last year to $150 this year, an increase of 800 percent. …

U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California labeled the response to the spill “insufficient” in a letter Thursday to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The senators questioned why the line lacked an automatic shut-off valve and whether some workers were left on the sidelines while the leak spread. …

In trying to balance the competing interests of oil companies and biofuel producers, the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed renewable fuel quotas for 2014, 2015 and 2016 have pleased almost no one. …

The proposed requirements would unnecessarily shorten an already brief window for exploratory drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas while dramatically boosting the costs of those operations, dissuading companies from drilling in the region, industry representatives said in formal comments filed with the government. …